The Cabinet Office has launched a consultation on new proposals to make online political campaigning more transparent. The new measures will require political parties, campaigners and others to clearly show who they are with a digital imprint, when promoting campaign content online.
The Government says that the move will mean that voters will get the same transparency from online material as they do from leaflets posted through their letterbox. Digital imprints will also allow the regulator to better monitor who is promoting election material and enforce the spending rules.
The regime is also intended to apply all year round, as while election periods see increased promotional activity, campaigning can happen at any time.
The proposals suggest that digital content meeting both of the following two tests should require an imprint:
· Where the material is intended to achieve the electoral success of registered political parties and candidates, or the material relates to a referendum;
· Where digital content is promoted by either:
- Registered political parties, registered third party campaigners, candidates, holders of elected office and registered referendum campaigners - both paid and organic digital content;
- Other campaigners - paid digital content only.
Imprint rules will also not apply to unregistered campaigners that are not paying to promote content, so that members of the public remain able to exercise their right to free speech.
The consultation closes at 11:45pm on 4 November 2020. Click here to respond.